Chelsea Women make light work of ten women Yeovil

Chelsea Women thump Yeovil for five

Chelsea Women moved third in the table after thumping a poor Yeovil side 5-0 who played over a half with ten women.

With Chelsea already four goals to the good, Nicola Cousins' dismissal on 40 minutes ended the game as a spectacle as the visitors adopted a damage limitation policy after the break.

Despite the resounding nature of the victory, Chelsea manager Emma Hayes insisted the performance was nothing more than solid.

She said: “I think we’ve got work to do in certain areas, and it’s important that we spend the next two weeks on the training pitch improving ourselves further. If we do that then I’m confident that we’ll continue to make the strides that matter.”

The Blues dominated from start to finish and were simply a different class to their opponents, who won their first WSL game in two years last time out against Everton.

Chelsea’s main avenue for attack in the first half was via Karen Carney and Jonna Andersson down the left, and this led to the opening goal on 20 minutes. When Carney received the ball on the wing after a corner was cleared, her low cross was turned in at the far post by centre-half Millie Bright.

Hayes’s side didn’t have long to wait for a second goal, when Ji So-Yun cut in from the left and found the bottom corner after a swift counter-attack which was all her own making.

Cousins was giving her marching orders soon after, bringing down Erin Cuthbert just outside the box as she was through on goal the referee had no option,

Cuthbert did get her goal before half-time though, launching herself to plant a volley past Yeovil goalkeeper Megan Walsh on 42 minutes. The fourth came just three minutes later, as Ramona Bachmann found the bottom corner after being afforded the time to turn inside the box to send the Blues in 4-0 at the break.

Yeovil manager Lee Burch clearly had words with his side at the break, as they came out for the second half with one aim: to not concede again.

They had all 10 of their players camped in and around their penalty area for much of the half, allowing Chelsea lots of time on the ball, but not many clear-cut opportunities.

It looked as if the visitors would achieve their aim, until substitute Bethany England found the net with a powerful shot which flew in off the post with 10 minutes remaining.

It was a goal which put the gloss on an outstanding performance and victory for the Blues, their fourth in a row in all competitions.

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